298 M. Heintz on some Experiments with Chloroform, 



temperature was kept for some time at 200° C. When potassium 

 is heated in chloroform vapour a violent explosion takes place. 



By acting on formiate of lead with chloroform, he hoped to 

 get anhydrous formic acid, thus : — ^ 



8(PbOC«HOa) + C«HC18 = 3PbCl + 4(C^H08). 

 Formiate of lead. Chloroform. Anhydrous 



formic acid. 



But formiate of lead is not acted upon by chloroform at any 

 temperature at which it would not be decomposed if heated 

 alone. For he found, on heating formiate of lead to about 

 200° C. under exclusion of air, that it is decomposed into me- 

 tallic lead, carbonic acid, and hydrogen. 



Heintz thought that by acting on chloroform with ammonia, 

 if any action took place which was not accompanied by decompo- 

 sition of the formyle, it might be according to two equations ; — 



' C^ H CP-f4NH3=3(NH4 CI) + 0^ H N, 



Chloroform. 



C2HCF + 6NH3=3NH4C1 + 3(NH2)C2H, 



By the first of these actions a nitride of formyle might be ob- 

 tained, and by the second a formyltriamine. 



At ordinary temperatures the two substances do not act on 

 each other. When chloroform is passed with excess of ammonia 

 through a heated tube, no action takes place till the temperature 

 approaches a red heat, when chloride and cyanide of ammonium 

 w:q formed :— 



C« H CP-f 5NH^=3(NH4C1) + NH4C2N ; 



nim^ Chloroform. Chloride of Cyanide of 



ammonium. ammonium. 



and if the temperature be raised high enough, paracyanogen is 

 produced from the decomposition of the cyanide. 



The action is different in the presence of water. In that case 

 it may be expressed by the formula — 



C3HCP+4HO-fNH3=NH4 0, C2H03 4-3(NH4C1). 



Formiate of ammonia. 



If the aqueous solution of ammonia with chloroform be heated 

 to 180° C, formiate of ammonia and chloride of ammonium are 

 formed. If the alcoholic solution of ammonia be heated with 

 chloroform to 190°, some formiate of ammonia is formed, together 

 with cyanide of ammonium. Sometimes neither the one nor the 

 other of these bodies is produced; when this is the case, para- 

 cyanogen is formed in some quantity. Along with these bodies 

 a little sethylamine is formed ; but this arises from the action 

 of ammonia on the alcohol, and is quite independent of the 

 chloroform. 



